Abstract

Workforce population trends have increased the numbers and kinds of culturally diverse people who work together. Researchers in organizational behavior have often examined culture through values; however, cultural values can be based on collections of people other than traditional nation states. A cultural mosaic is presented as a framework to identify demographic, geographic, and associative features underlying culture. An individual’s unique collage of multiple cultural identities yields a complex picture of the cultural influences on that person. Developments in chaos and complexity theories are proposed as a theoretical base for study on the complexity of culture at the individual level. Additional developments in network theory serve as a theoretical base for cultural research at the group level. The cultural mosaic is described as a complex system with localized structures, linking cultural tiles in ordered and chaotic ways. Research propositions examining multiple cultural identities at individual and group levels are discussed.

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